Saturday, December 12, 2015

Banned music of the week

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Pope Francis is not the first one to link love of God with love of our neighbor and care for our environment.

The idea of stewardship of the land as an echo of the stewardship of God for the earth is ancient, but the industrial revolution sort of put it on hold and replaced it with the idea of "exploitation of the land" in order to make money.

which brings us to Jerusalem the song:

And did those feet in ancient timeWalk upon England’s mountains green?And was the holy Lamb of GodOn England’s pleasant pastures seen?And did the countenance divineShine forth upon our clouded hills?And was Jerusalem builded hereAmong those dark satanic mills?

Blake's phrase resonates with a wider theme in his works, what he envisioned as a physically and spiritually repressive ideology based on a quantifiable reality. Blake saw the cotton mills andcollieries of the period as a mechanism for the enslavement of millions, but the concepts underpinning the works had a wider application:[12][13]

'The Dean of Southwark does not believe that it is to the glory of God and it is not therefore used in private memorial services.'
Various excuses have been used in recent years for banning Jerusalem.
Some clerics have objected on the grounds that Blake's poetry is insufficiently Christian.
Others have complained that bows, arrows, spears, swords, and chariots of fire are too military in tone.
St Margaret's once refused to allow the hymn to be used at a memorial service because its clergy considered that the contrast of dark satanic mills with England's green and pleasant land discriminated against city dwellers.
Vicars occasionally try to prevent the singing of Jerusalem on the grounds that it is 'too nationalistic' - a reason cited by a Manchester cleric who told a couple they could not have it at their wedding in 200 Read

In the 21st Century, Jerusalem has been banned as being too nationalistic. One key word jumps out: banned.

Which brings me back to my question, what about those “dark Satanic Mills”? Should the banning of Jerusalem, and similar acts of political correctness, be considered one of the “dark Satanic Mills” of our times?